No matter where in the world you want to ship something, or have something shipped to you, it is a possibility today. This is, of course, thanks to the myriad highly efficient courier and parcel service companies that exist worldwide, who transfer boxes, envelopes, and all manners of items, big and small, across countries and continents. Depending on the distance the parcel is going, the modes of transport include trucks, ships (containers are an inexpensive way to get a large amount of stuff sent across), trains, and airplanes. With the magic of the internet, you can make purchases off websites for companies located anywhere in the world, and many offer shipping to different parts of the world, too.

Just how do courier companies manage to deliver billions of packages each year, and for the most part, do so in a timely fashion? Well, the magic of technology and this includes the world wide web, and mobile communication devices, make it all seem so seamless and easy. We live in a time where we can, and often do, take it for granted that we will order something and not only will it show up at the designated address in the stipulated span of time, we will also have the ability to track is whereabouts as it makes the journey towards us, be that one of a few hundreds or many thousands of miles.

And all this information is made available to you with a sophisticated yet simple system scanners, barcodes, and handheld devices, alongside the internet. It all starts with the barcode assigned to the package, which will be affixed on a label to the actual package, and that barcode gets scanned by the postal worker or courier guy. Wondering what the information is, that is contained on your package’s label, and how a barcode can help you know more about where your package is?

Well, the final destination aka the delivery address, including the zip code, is the primary information that is contained. Furthermore, the courier company will use the barcode to track the package’s travels across cities, states, and countries, from its starting point, tracing its route and stops along the way at different cities and states before it is delivered to its final destination. And, since all that information gets updated in real time, through the handheld scanners that employees use to swipe every item’s barcode at each stop and start point, it means you, the consumer, get a play by play of your precious package.

Tracking refers to the ability to get information on something, and know of its whereabouts and where it is and at what time. When it comes to packages, depending on the mailing and package delivery service one uses and any add-ons chosen, one will likely have the option of being able to track the package one has sent. Whether one chooses United States Postal Service (USPS), FedEx, DHL, TNT, UPS to name the most popular and better known courier service companies in the country, the availability of tracking information so one can track the package from its origin to destination, is possible.

USPS is the only government service provider, with the rest being private, corporate entities. Smaller but equally important names include Amazon, which as the leading marketplace and aggregator site that it is, has its own Amazon shipping services that come with tracking ability. Packages and letters of all shapes and sizes can be sent, and indeed tracked as well. So, should one be sending a present or care package or goodies of some sort to a friend, family member, or business colleague, one can avail of the tracking option to ensure that the parcel does reach its intended recipient.

Apart from packages sent from one person to another, the other and much more frequent type of package service is of course, when it is a purchase from a company’s website for a product of some sort. Today, everything from groceries to household appliances, from apparel and footwear to jewelry and eyeglasses, is bought online. And of course, everyone wants to make sure that their purchases reach them safely, and in the time frame stipulated.

And it is thus the onus of the company sending out the merchandise to ensure it is sent safely through a reliable courier service, and of course, one which provides a bar code that will allow the package’s eager recipient to track its status and movement, from when it is first handed over to the courier company until the moment it is signed for or delivered to the purchaser’s mailbox or doorstep. Some tracking is extremely detailed, offering a blow by blow account of a package’s whereabouts, sharing the entirety of its route and where it is at a given time. Other times the information is less specific, offering that the information that the package is on its way and giving the expected date of delivery.

Transportation of goods is one of the oldest businesses that has been around for centuries in one form or another, and the demand has only continued to increase as time has gone by. Back in the day, sending a package meant going over to the post office, filling out a bunch of forms, seeing your parcel disappear behind the counter, and then waiting to hear from the person you’d sent it to, that it had reached them safe and sound. And hope and pray the package did not get lost, delayed, or damaged in transit.

How times have changed! Historically, the reason to offer package tracking was just that so senders and receivers could know about the route their package would take, and get an estimated date of delivery. Today, one can print a shipping label at home, and get the parcel collected from one’s doorstep too. And you can get information about the journey said package is undertaking, from start to finish, literally tracking its whereabouts from your doorstep to the doorstep of the person you’re sending it to all thanks to technology.

Every package, whether sent by regular United States Postal Service or through a private courier company like FedEx, DHL, UPS, or TNT, gets a unique identification code, in the form of a bar code, and that code, when scanned with the bar scanners that every employee of the postal or courier service who is handling the package has, gives one the latest information as to its location along the trail. So, each time the parcel is loaded or unloaded from a truck, train, mail van, or airplane, it gets scanned and each successive scan updates the available information, which you can track using the tracking number that the courier service has provided you with for just that purpose.

This is real time tracking, where the courier delivery company or United States Postal Service worker has a handheld scanner which they wave in front of the package’s barcode and the information is updated online and anyone with the package’s tracking number can look up its trajectory along the path, online. Or if you prefer, you can also choose to have said information sent to your mobile phone or email id, which means you get live updates automatically. This service is not always available from every courier service or for every kind of package, but you can check to see if it is.

Packages that are sent via courier or mail are a source of excitement, well, most of the time at least! Whether it’s your birthday or Hanukkah or Christmas or some other special holiday when you are likely to receive a gift on, there is something fun and exciting about the anticipation and the receiving of a package at your doorstep. For a college student far from home, a serviceman a long way from family and home comforts, or a sick or injured friend or relative, nothing beats the joy of knowing that your loved ones care for you and are thinking of you and what expresses this better than a care package with all sorts of goodies?

Well, when you’re sending a package that’s been created with love and so much thought, you definitely want it to not just reach its destination, but probably track its course as well! Tracking offers peace of mind to the sender and also acts as an assurance to the receiver, since both can track the package’s whereabouts using the unique set of numbers that constitute its barcode.

You can track the status and movement of a package using the code given, either online or in some cases, via the telephone. You can even sign up to receive email and/or text message notifications that will make it even easier for you to trace the package on its journey. This proves particularly helpful for when you need something on a deadline. Plus, you will get notified either through the shipping or courier company, or by the vendor in case of a purchase rather than care package, of the package’s arrival at its intended destination. Which means that you will know the moment the package has reached its destination.

This is valuable information in the case of you having to notify someone to collect the package for you in your absence, or if you are having it sent to someone (or delivered to you) at an office address, where it may have to go through a process to reach the recipient since it will most likely get delivered to the mailroom, be sorted there and then eventually either find its way to one’s desk, or else the person will get notified and be asked to collect it. The marvel of utilizing the tracking option means that you don’t have to wait you can get your hands on it immediately!